Internet safety is something that seems like a normal thing that should be taught to everyone. When someone starts to operate a forklift, they are taught what to do and require a certification to actually operate one. However, the internet is a public space and means there is nothing stopping anyone from joining the spaces of the web.
Early Internet Safety
To many adult users of the internet today, they were taught about the dangers of surfing the web and giving out information to others over the internet. In 2004, Jocelyn Wishart published in Computers & Education under Internet safety in emerging educational contexts that children are using the internet more outside of school.
"Children start giving personal information such as first name (5%), last name (4%), e-mail address (3%), photograph (2%), phone number (1%) and home address (0.7%) in chat conversations from the age of 9," (Wishart, 2004).
Internet Safety Standards Stagnation
There were many fearful words given to young kids like, “don’t post your face on the internet,” or “don’t post your address on the internet,” but this kind of advice is archaic and does not reflect the kind of danger that comes from revealing minimal information now. For example, following the 2016 presidential election, Shia LeBeouf had a campaign with a flag saying, "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US," written on it and live streaming his protest. At first it was done on the street but after a series of vandalisms, he ended up putting the flag on a remote flagpole in a field, however since it was being live streamed and the camera was pointing toward the sky, it did not take long for people to find its exact location and steal it.
Children are curious by nature and parents are right to worry about them when browse the internet unimpeded. "...a survey undertaken in Ireland revealed that 49% of parents thought that schools should provide online safety information... Canadian survey showed that 86% of parents thought it “very important that schools improve the online safety of children using school computers...” (Wishart, 2004 p. 193-204).
“Most schools endeavor to protect children in their care. However, there are no provisions for teaching safe Internet behaviors to protect children outside school,” (Ey & Cupit, 2011). As the times grow, ideas grow, and hardware and software improve. In the early days of the public internet, the idea of giving out any information on the internet was frowned upon but nowadays the younger children who browse the web give out more than they think.
Catfishing
WORDS of the DAY
Catfishing
NOUN: The process of luring someone into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona.
Catfish
VERB: lure (someone) into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona.When it comes to talking to people online, there is no telling who the person on the other side could be. On some occasions there are people who pretend to be someone they are not in order to extort others online. Whether this extortion comes in the form of a harmless prank, money, or seeking a relationship under false pretenses, catfishing is one of the staples of online interaction between strangers over the internet.
Messenger apps and chat rooms such as AOL or MSN were used frequently by people who had access to the public internet. It did not take long for predators to use this to their advantage. In 2004, Reporter Chris Hansen hosted a television program called, To Catch a Predator, on Dateline NBC which showed how men would use these apps to message younger children to try to meet with them in person. The show was structured like a sting operation and would end with an interview of the person being arrested. Many of them seemed to be remorseful but there are a select few that see nothing wrong with what they are doing.
Catfishing is not limited to older men wanting to meet children. Modern dating apps still experience the problem of people not being who they say they are and people falling victim to this persona being built for them. "Dating apps... allow for direct aggression and abuse. One study conducted among a predominately heterosexual (92%) sample of young adults ages 18–30 found that many individuals using dating apps perpetrate cyber dating abuse..." (Lauckner, Truszczynski, Lambert, Kottamasu, Meherally, Schipani, McLaughlin, & Hansen, 2019). When talking to someone online, it's almost impossible to tell who they really are and some methods of confirmation.
Conclusion
The internet continues to grow in the modern day and the way children are taught about it should grow with it. Learning to prevent modern cyber attacks and keeping private information private will go a long way in ensuring internet safety for everyone browsing.
Informative articles and video's from topics mentioned here:
Dateline NBC, To Catch a Predator (2004)
.Ey, L. A., & Glenn Cupit, C. (2011). Exploring young children’s understanding of risks
associated with Internet usage and their concepts of management strategies.
Journal of Early Childhood Research, 9(1), 53-65
Internet Historian, Capture the Flag (2017, March) https://youtu.be/vw9zyxm860Q
Lauckner, C., Truszczynski, N., Lambert, D., Kottamasu, V., Meherally, S., Schipani
McLaughlin, A. M., ... & Hansen, N. (2019). “Catfishing,” cyberbullying, and coercion: An
exploration of the risks associated with dating app use among rural sexual minority
males. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 23(3), 289-306
Wishart, J. (2004). Internet safety in emerging educational contexts. Computers &
Education, 43(1-2), 193-204.
For more information:
Regarding To Catch a Predator
"The Predator Chronicles," by Mista GG